Twenty Days Later
by eveningspirit1
Summary: Part Four of the series inspired by the show's episode Thirty Days. Love can fix everything, or so they say. But does B'Elanna love Tom enough?


WARNING - RATED "M" FOR:  
> Some bad vocabulary.

> Graphic sex. And beautiful too :), because sex is beautiful, if you love the person you have it with. If you are under 16 though - skip the first part of the text ;).

> Angst, fear and panic attack, but this are emotions we're familiar with, even when we are babies...

>>

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any Star Trek contents.

>>

NOTE: This is Alternative Universe, as I was mostly inspired by some fanfiction (e.g. "Walls" by David Anakin, and others), not the episode "Thirty Days" itself. If you know those stories, it may be a little easier for you to understand why Tom Paris is the way he is - here. If you do not - long story short - it's about claustrophobia.

If you find some of my ideas feebly explained, or notice lack of logic, as well as grammar, style, vocabulary or spelling mistakes - please include that in your reviews. I'll be very thankful.

>>

TWENTY DAYS AFTER (THIRTY DAYS)

by YANNIK

>>

_Tipititipipitiritipiti_

Delicate music crawled into his thoughts, softly calling him out of the gloom.

Half asleep, Tom reached behind his back, to the right side of the bed, and pushed the button. The music stopped. He run his hand down his face, and opened his eyes.

There she was. Her beautiful features still tranquil, her hair dangling with messy strands over her rippled forehead. Her naked hand resting upon the covers. She slept naked lately. As did he - none of them willing to waste time for getting undressed, when passion hit.

He smiled absently and caressed soft, tan skin of her arm.

All of a sudden she was above him, and he was flat on his back! She scared him. He held his breath. But after a split second he forced himself to relax. There was too much fear, he had to let it go. He laughed lightly, and she smiled like a predator. Yes, he was her prey. He wanted nothing else. Then she leaned to kiss him. Kiss him strong. Kiss him hard.

He held her head in his palms, feeling her thick hair between his fingers. Feeling her gut, press against his gut. Feeling her thighs against his hips.

She found her position with ease, and started moving with long, deep strides, her lips still pressed to his lips, their breaths becoming one.

Suddenly the light, that was set for ten percent for the night, flickered and died, immersing them in complete darkness. Tom felt B'Elanna's arms straighten as she rose her head. His palms, resting on her shoulders, her skin even more vibrant now, since he could not see her. She laughed softly.

"Core's overload."

And she rested her forehead against his chest in desperation.

Tom stroked her back, inhaled her scent.

"Don't worry about it" he whispered.

She rose her head abruptly. It was dark, so he could not see the sly grin on her face.

"How can I? I should be there already!"

"B'Elanna, no."

"They won't get it working without me! In fact I had an idea at night, the cable..."

"Lanna, please" he held her tighter.

"I gotta go, they need me." He didn't even notice that she hadn't moved at all.

"I need you too, B'Elanna. You can't go now. Not now."

Silence.

"B'Elanna?"

She burst out laughing.

"I was teasing you, stupid!"

"Yooou!" he roared, and with all his force turned her - still laughing - on her back. Pinned her to the bed. She gave in. "This one is going to be long" he warned, whispering to her ear. Then he bite it. Softly - just as. She moaned. He loved that sound! "You're gonna be so late, girl..."

>>

Time later - he didn't know how long, he lost track of it - they were laying on their backs, breathing heavily, sweat cooling their skins. The light returned somewhere in between, but they didn't even notice. Out of the blue Tom realized he didn't have any nightmare this night. He smiled softly. Finally he had a night of peaceful sleep.

"What?" B'Elanna asked, turning to her side, and pulling the cover over her breasts. "Was it that good?" voracious smile adorned her face. No, she never had enough!

He didn't want to upset her with his moping around his restless nights again, so he just nodded. And kissed her gently.

As he stood up, and looked at the watch, he realized how late it was.

"Quick shower Lanna, and off to work!"

"Shit!"

When they got out of the shower, it was 0753 hours.

"Guess we'll skip the mess hall today. Do you still have replicator rations?" Tom asked. "I run out of mine."

"I should have some left" she checked. "One. Not too extensive. Two cracknels and two cups of coffee" she said to the replicator, and eyed Tom "Hope I didn't want too much."

She did - one cup was only three quarters full. Tom laughed.

"Not the richest breakfast." He bit his cracknel.

"Will have to last till dinner" B'Elanna smiled, and kissed him. They left the quarters. "I'll see you there, huh? But first you'll walk me to the engineering, right?"

"Sure. How many 'walk-tos' do you owe me already?"

"I'll make it up to you, as soon, as we're on the move again. You have nothing to do on the bridge anyway, right? Since we're bogged."

"I'm bogged on gamma-shift, when we're on the move, remember? I've got nothing to do even then" he paused, seeing mixture of hurt an worry on her face. "Sorry. I'm getting gloomy again."

"Apparently. But I forgive you." She pressed herself against him, looking up into his face with defiant smile. "So, you can be late?" They so hated being apart those days!

"Yeah." He pushed the button to call the turbolift, empty cups landing in the replicator.

"We will fix the core today. I'm sure of it. I started telling you about that dream I had tonight. There is something in those tales about 'sleeping with the problem'..."

She continued rambling, as they entered the turbolift, but he didn't listen to her any longer. He couldn't help it, but all he could think about, once inside of it - was the long, long ride back from engineering to the bridge. When he was there with B'Elanna it was bearable, but then he had to take off on his own. And endure long few seconds of holding breath, tense muscles, sweat trickling just above his brows. Waiting. And wanting to scream - let me out!

The light flickered, and died.

Tom held his breath.

"Whatta?..." he heard B'Elanna's mutter. And then she demanded louder: "Torres to engineering!" Silence. "Torres to the bridge!" Silence. "Damn it! This core is driving me..."

"B'Elanna, hush" he asked quietly.

"What?"

"Please. Don't..."

"What do you want?"

"...speak" he said slowly. He needed to hear. He needed to know.

There was no sound. She remained quiet too.

"We're not..." there was a lump in his throat. Large lump. "...moving."

"Of course we're not!" B'Elanna was not calm at all. In fact she seemed furious. "We're stuck! Damn core is causing overvoltage every now and then, and we cannot recalibrate it, so everything just goes... offline! If it's gonna last another day, I'll just go nuts! Torres to the Capitan!" Tom reached out and touched turbolift's wall with tips of his fingers. Caressed it. Then he stretched his other hand somewhat reluctantly, hoping it would not meet anything. But there it was. Another wall. So close. "Torres to Chakotay! Torres to Tuvok! Damn! We're jammed!"

"Let me out..." Tom pleaded softly.

Silence.

"Tom?"

"Let me out!"

"Tom, easy. They'll fix it in a moment."

"I want to get out" he tried to remain composed, but his voice betrayed him. He nearly cried. "I want to get out."

"In a moment." Something touched his arm.

He flinched.

"No" he stammered.

"Tom." The touch grew harder.

"It will crush us!" he flung himself on the door, unable to control his fear any longer. "I want to get out!" He started to bang with his fists, scratch with his nails, hoping to open it somehow.

"Tom!"

Arms pulled him from the door, but there was another wall, and another, and another. Hands, walls, hands trying to grab him! There was somebody, and there were walls, everywhere he turned - walls. So tight, so close. He couldn't breathe! There wasn't enough air! "Help" he moaned.

"I'm with you Tom! I'm right here! Tom!"

He tried, with all his force, to push the walls away. He had to keep them from weighing down on him. But his arms were weakening, and some other hands were holding him back. "No, dount tousch me, I hawe to hould it" he mumbled.

"Tom, stop it! Tom. It's alright, they will let us out soon" voice pleaded, but he knew better than to let go. "Tom, please, stop! Tom. You're scaring me! Please!"

"I hawe to keep'em!"

"It's alright! You don't have to... Just... Tom, stop! Please, Tom. Stop!"

Hands shook him, but he desperately stood against it. He had to be strong, or else the walls would smash him! He had to be strong. He fastened his palms against the fencesshutting on him. "Aaaaarghhh!"

"Tom, damn it! Please! What are you doing?"

"Aaaaarghhhhh!" how long could he hold on? He had to hold on!

"I can't stand this any longer, Tom! You're the one bringing this upon yourself! You can control it! You gotta stop! Tom! You. Gotta. Stop!"

"Aaarghhhh..."

"STOP!"

Something clashed across his face.

He fell to his knees.

And fences shut down.

>>

B'Elanna stood shocked. He stopped yelling finally. It helped, but... But.

What has she done!

"Tom?" she pleaded, kneeling down. There he was. His back curled so tightly - it was hard to believe one so tall, could become so little. She stroked him gently, and he shivered, but didn't make a sound. No more.

What has she done?

But she had to stop him, he was making even her frightened! No, she shouldn't have, she knew that. She just gave in to her Klingon temper. But it was his doing! He upset her! Damn!

"Tom..."

There was no response. She had to help him!

"Tom."

She touched him again, and he shivered so violently.

"It's okay. It's me."

Silence. He just shook. The harder she touched him, the more he trembled. And sobbed very lightly. Choked. So she just stopped. She just didn't touch him, because she realized it was only making things worse. What was she supposed to do?

She sat with her back resting against the wall. Claustrophobia. How can one be so afraid of being in a closed space? It's not scary at all! She could not understand. But she had to! She knew she had to understand.

"Tom? I'm still here. You're safe" she started quietly, then she stopped. There was another important thing, right? "You're not alone now" she whispered. She was hoping he could hear her, he could understand her within that shell, he was hiding himself in. She should reach him! But maybe not right now?

Damn! She had to act, not sit and wait like this! She was half-Klingon after all.

"Let us out, damn it!" She rose, and yelled at the closed door. She started banging, just like he did a moment ago. "Let us out!"

As if in response to her demand, the light was back.

"See" she turned to him quickly, with a smile. "I told you, they'd repair it soon. We'll be out of here in a moment!" She bent down.

Tom lifted his head and looked at her. She could still see fear in his eyes. Panic and childish disbelief. But there also was recognition underneath. She smiled, and caressed his cheek. He nodded. Sighed a shuttered breath.

And then his gaze went past her. He shouldn't have done that.

"No" the look in his eyes turned into one of plain terror. He tried to fight it, she saw him struggle, but it was too overwhelming. "No..." his voice was stifled, as if his throat was to tight for words to come out. He lifted his hand to protect himself from the ceiling falling down on him.

"Tom. You're safe" B'Elanna whispered, but he could hear her no longer.

Damn! She wanted to shake him, to hit him. To beat this fear out of him! With all her force she tried to stop herself, but she was loosing control. Kingon do not fright! Fear is contemptible! Especially such irrational fear. If you fear in a battle - well, that might be justified. But being afraid of a lift?

Stop it Paris! - she wanted to scream, but she managed to hold herself back. Yet.

Someone had to get them out of here! Soon! Or else...

"Engineering to Torres!" sudden voice startled her. She slammed her commbadge with such force that it nearly choked her.

"Torr-ukh! Torres here!"

"Where are you?"

"In the fucking turbolift!" And then an idea hit her "Can you beam us out of here? Paris is here with me. Beam him out!"

"We can't yet. Systems are coming back on line, but you'll have to wait a moment longer. I wouldn't like to use transporters, without proper diagnostic run on them first. Turoblifts should be operable soon, so you will simply come down. Carrey out."

"Heard that?" B'Elanna twisted towards still crumbled figure of Tom Paris. Disgusting! She did not despise human. She was half-human. But she did despise him now.

The thought saddened her. She was supposed to love that man! Damn, she did love him! Why did he have to be that weak?

Soft sound reached her ears. The lift moved.

"We're moving Tom!"

He still did not react. She kneeled down beside him. She listened, and she could swear he was not breathing.

"Tom?"

Turbolift's door opened with soft hum. She rose her sight to see disturbed faces of her fellow engineers, staring right at them. She patted he commbadge, trying to protect Tom from their gazes at the same time.

"Torres to transporters room."

"Transporters here."

"Is teleport operable now?"

"I'm just finishing diagnostics. In a moment."

"As soon as you're ready, lock on Ensign Paris and beam him to the sickbay. Torres out."

She put her foot in turbolift's door, to prevent them from closing, and gave her crew a look, that had them immediately going back to their duties.

Yes, she had a duty too. She saw warp core over there, waiting for her to work with it. To fix it. But there was another thing she had to fix as well.

After a crumbled figure of her lover flickered in teleport's light, she still sat, looking at the empty floor for a long while. What was she supposed to deal with first?

END

.Y

PS. If you think sex it's too graphic (well, it's obviously not!), and want to report me to the authorities of this site - please, let me know, and give me a few days. I'll change the content.


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